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Woman saves three relatives from Ebola

Fatu Kekula has cared for four of her family members with Ebola, keeping three alive without infecting herself.

For more from Elizabeth Cohen on the ground in West Africa, watch CNN Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.

(CNN) — It can be exhausting nursing a child through a nasty bout with the flu, so imagine how 22-year-old Fatu Kekula felt nursing her entire family through Ebola.

Her father. Her mother. Her sister. Her cousin. Fatu took care of them all, single-handedly feeding them, cleaning them and giving them medications.

And she did so with remarkable success. Three out of her four patients survived. That’s a 25% death rate — considerably better than the estimated Ebola death rate of 70%.

Fatu stayed healthy, which is noteworthy considering that more than 300 health care workers have become infected with Ebola, and she didn’t even have personal protection equipment — those white space suits and goggles used in Ebola treatment units.

Instead Fatu, who’s in her final year of nursing school, invented her own equipment. International aid workers heard about Fatu’s “trash bag method” and are now teaching it to other West Africans who can’t get into hospitals and don’t have protective gear of their own.

Every day, several times a day for about two weeks, Fatu put trash bags over her socks and tied them in a knot over her calves. Then she put on a pair of rubber boots and then another set of trash bags over the boots.

She wrapped her hair in a pair of stockings and over that a trash bag. Next she donned a raincoat and four pairs of gloves on each hand, followed by a mask.

It was an arduous and time-consuming process, but Fatu was religious about it, never cutting corners.

UNICEF Spokeswoman Sarah Crowe said Fatu is amazing.

“Essentially this is a tale of how communities are doing things for themselves,” Crowe said. “Our approach is to listen and work with communities and help them do the best they can with what they have.”

Moses, 52, developed a fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Then the hospital closed down because nurses started dying of Ebola.

Fatu took her father to Monrovia, the capital city, about a 90-minute drive via difficult roads. Three hospitals turned him away because they were full.

She took him back to another hospital in Kakata. They said he had typhoid fever and did little for him, so Fatu took him home, where he infected three other family members: Fatu’s mother, Victoria, 57; Fatu’s sister, Vivian, 28, and their 14-year-old cousin who was living with them, Alfred Winnie.

While operating her one-woman Ebola hospital for two weeks, Fatu consulted with their family doctor, who would talk to her on the phone, but wouldn’t come to the house. She gave them medicines she obtained from the local clinic and fluids through intravenous lines that she started.

At times, her patients’ blood pressure plummeted so low she feared they would die.

But her father, mother, and sister rallied and were well on their way to recovery when space became available at JFK Medical Center on August 17. Alfred never recovered, though, and passed away at the hospital the next day.

“I’m very, very proud,” her father said. “She saved my life through the almighty God.”

Now he’s working to find a scholarship for Fatu so she can finish her final year of nursing school. He has no doubt his daughter will go on to save many more people during her life.

Ebola patients left to lay on the ground

Ebola overwhelms new hospital in Liberia

Editor’s note: CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Liberia to report on the largest Ebola outbreak on record.

Monrovia, Liberia (CNN) — On the day the new Ebola clinic in Liberia opened, ambulances waited outside. Inside the ambulances were desperately ill patients who had come for treatment but instead would be left to lie on the ground as others walked by.

The Island Clinic and its 120 Ebola treatment beds opened to fanfare Sunday afternoon, with a ceremony attended by international health officials and Liberian leaders. But the clinic, located on Bushrod Island near Monrovia, the capital, did not appear to be ready for the number of patients that quickly flooded its doors.

Some lay motionless on the floors of the ambulances outside the center, too weak to get out. They had traveled for hours after being turned away from other hospitals in the area. No one from inside the hospital arrived to offer assistance.

Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa

“Try to come down and walk a little,” a worker told him.

“I’m too tired,” the man said.

But he summoned his strength and got out of the ambulance — and immediately collapsed on the ground.

A little boy tried to walk out of another ambulance, but he too collapsed.

The two lay on the rocky ground just a few feet apart. The boy was completely naked and the man was naked from the waist down — Ebola patients often don’t wear pants because of the intense diarrhea caused by the virus.

“Get up and go inside,” workers told the boy. “You’ll only get food if you go inside.”

“Let him rest,” another worker said, and they agreed to let him stay where he lay.

When asked why no one from the hospital was helping them get inside, a hospital worker said staff was inside suiting up in protective gear. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids from an infected patient.

More than 2,800 people have died over the past six months in West Africa. Five countries have reported Ebola cases, but Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have carried the largest burden.

Island Clinic is supported by the government of Liberia and the World Health Organization. When shown CNN’s video of the patients collapsing, a WHO representative was horrified, but said the patients shouldn’t have waited until they were so sick to seek help.

“I think the lesson here is that people come too late,” said Peter Graaff.

But many Ebola patients don’t wait by choice — there’s an estimated shortage of 700 Ebola beds in Monrovia alone, and patients often wander from hospital to hospital, only to be turned away.

“I know, I know,” said Graaff, WHO’s country representative in Liberia. “That’s why we need to increase capacity.”

Graaff said he would try to find out why hospital workers didn’t come help the patients. He said he hopes any opening-day difficulties won’t discourage patients from seeking help — he doesn’t want them to stay home.

“It’s shocking,” he said. “This is exactly what we should try to avoid in the future. It’s horrible.”

***

John Bonifield, Orlind Cooper, Orlando Ruiz and Jacque Wilson contributed to this story.

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I was moved by Fatu’s story so I set up a gofundme page so she can continue her nursing education and help others who have contracted Ebola. Please share this page! Should you have any questions feel free to contact me! Thanks! http://funds.gofundme.com/dashboard/fhje7k #GoFatu!

One year ago, she died from complications in childbirth, a killer that every month takes twice as many lives as the entire Ebola epidemic. ... Many of these success stories were made possible through international development aid for maternal health, which increased steadily from 2010 to 2015.

Widow of Ebola Victim, Mother of Five Cries For Assistance March 18, 2018

Her story is probably more mind grappling than some of the famous stories told about the ugly impact left behind by the world's worst deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, including Liberia in 2014. Liberia became the worst affected with more than 5000 deaths. For Shianeh, every year Decoration ...

One year ago, she died from complications in childbirth, a killer that every month takes twice as many lives as the entire Ebola epidemic. ... Many of these success stories were made possible through international development aid for maternal health, which increased steadily from 2010 to 2015.

Widow of Ebola Victim, Mother of Five Cries For Assistance March 18, 2018

Her story is probably more mind grappling than some of the famous stories told about the ugly impact left behind by the world's worst deadly Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, including Liberia in 2014. Liberia became the worst affected with more than 5000 deaths. For Shianeh, every year Decoration ...